California’s foie gras ban takes effect, much to the chagrin of Canadian and French producers

No matter your position, foie gras is surely France’s most contentious culinary export. Translated as “fatty liver,” foie gras (over-sized lobes of duck or goose liver) is produced using a process called gavage (force-feeding animals using a tube passed into the stomach), which opponents consider inhumane. Foie gras defenders, on the other hand, suggest the dish is “perhaps the most maligned (and misunderstood) food in the world.”

Now, after six years of legal back-and-forth, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from foie gras producers, making way for a state-wide ban in California to take effect. According to SFGate, the law, which carries a fine of $1,000, was originally passed in 2004 but wasn’t enforced until 2012 when it compelled the closure of the state’s sole foie gras producer. It was suspended in 2015 and then upheld once again by a California appeal court in 2017.

The foie gras proponents in the case included a contingent of Quebec duck and goose farmers (L’Association des Éleveurs de Canards et d’Oies du Québec) and a California restaurateur. Meanwhile, French foie gras producers, which create the vast majority of the world’s foie gras with a 70 per cent market share, called the law “an assault on French (gastronomic and cultural) tradition.” Michel Fruchet, president of the Comité Interprofessionnel des Palmipèdes à Foie Gras, said, “It is unacceptable that such a decision, taken under the influence of the lobbying of some activists orchestrating regular misinformation on our products to advocate dogmatic vegetarianism, could endanger the image of an emblematic dish of the French art of living.”

In contrast, PETA celebrated the decision. “This victory for animals follows tireless efforts from animal rights activists to oppose the archaic foie gras industry,” the animal rights organization said in a statement. “Now that California can enforce this ban, PETA urges diners to blow the whistle on any restaurant that’s caught serving this illegal and hideously produced substance,” said PETA president Ingrid Newkirk.

In Canada, foie gras production is permissible, with Quebec ranked among North America’s largest producers. However, according to the Humane Society International, more than a dozen countries have prohibited its production, including Denmark, Finland, Poland, Turkey and the U.K.

California is the first U.S. state to ban both production and sale of foie gras from force-fed animals.